Inspiration Monday: Duck Duck Goose

Driving home from work today, figuring out a conversation between two characters that won’t even happen until book three – I start tearing up. Do your characters ever make you cry?

Regardless, feel free to laugh or cry for these characters:

DJMatticus

WritingSprint

Sam

Kim

Drop me a line if I missed you!

The Rules

There are none. Read the prompts, get inspired, write something. No word count minimum or maximum. You don’t have to include the exact prompt in your piece, and you can interpret the prompt(s) any way you like.

OR

No really; I need rules!

Okay; write 200-500 words on the prompt of your choice. You may either use the prompt as the title of your piece or work it into the body of your piece. You must complete it before 6 pm CST on the Monday following this post.

The Prompts:

DUCK DUCK GOOSE

FROZEN TEARS

SERENADE

HOLDING THE CARDS

CHOOSERS CAN’T BE BEGGARS

 

Want to share your Inspiration Monday piece? Post it on your blog and link back to today’s post; I’ll include a link to your piece in the next Inspiration Monday post. No blog? Email your piece to me at bekindrewrite (at) yahoo (dot) com. (I do reserve the right to NOT link to a piece as stated in my Link Discretion Policy.)

Plus, get the InMon badge for your site here.

Happy writing!

How to Sneak in Scenic Description

Photo by Tri Nguyen

Photo by Tri Nguyen

Setting is as necessary as plot and character, but only as far as it influences plot and character, the way the water-starved planet Arrakis affects everything that happens in Dune.

No one reads a book for the scenery; it’s a nice bonus if described artfully, but it’s not what makes us crack the pages.

Yet so many writers spend paragraphs painting a picture before even touching on the action. Many try a “zoom in” approach, first describing a wide shot, like a city, then zooming in on a particular street or building, then zooming in further to describe a character. Only after all that do they finally get around to the story.

At best, this approach is risky, especially on the first page, when you only have seconds to secure a reader’s attention. So instead of dedicating whole paragraphs to weather, scenery, and character appearance, try dispersing it throughout the action and dialogue.

As an experiment, I’ve written two different versions of the beginning of a story. See which one grabs your attention sooner. Maybe you’ll disagree with me. Let me know in the comments.

VERSION ONE

The city went on forever, a steel and glass jungle clogged with concrete and grime. Skyscrapers rubbed shoulders with factories; trains shoved aside shops and cafés, and crowds oozed through bottleneck alleys.

In the bustle at the station on the corner of 3rd and Main stood a man with a brown coat and hat; a static chocolate freckle in a surging confetti sea. His face was round and crinkled; his eyebrows spikey and gray. He had two fingers shoved in the little pocket where he kept his watch, feeling the tick tock in his fingertips like the pulse in his veins.

It seemed like it was slowing.

How many ticks did he have left before the train came? How many tocks before he stepped aboard for the last time? How many heartbeats before he flinched at the hiss of the air brakes, anticipating the final exhalation of his own rattling lungs?

And then suddenly it was before him, light strobing off its speeding windows, the tracks screeching with sparks. Slower and slower until it stopped, staring at him.

The train was on time. He was about to be late.

Done? Now pretend you’ve forgotten that and read this version:

VERSION TWO

He had two fingers shoved in the little pocket where he kept his watch, feeling the tick tock in his fingertips like the pulse in his veins.

It seemed like it was slowing.

His brown hat bowed as he squinted at the minute hand. How many ticks did he have left before the train came? How many tocks before he stepped aboard for the last time? How many heartbeats before he flinched at the hiss of the air brakes, anticipating the final exhalation of his own rattling lungs?

The endless city seemed to press down on him, a steel and glass jungle clogged with concrete and grime. But he stood frozen in the bustle, a static chocolate freckle in the surging confetti sea at the corner of 3rd and Main.

He could almost feel it scream closer, slipping beneath skyscrapers that rubbed shoulders with factories, squeezing past overflowing shops and cafes, shoving aside crowds that oozed through bottleneck alleys.

And then suddenly it was before him, light strobing off its speeding windows, the tracks screeching with sparks. Slower and slower until it stopped, staring at him.

The train was on time. He was about to be late.

Leave your verdict in the comments!

Inspiration Monday: Look at Me Now

Check out the last post of my guest series over at WritersClubKL – a warning to all writers.  And experience a wide range of emotions while reading this week’s InMonstories:

DJMatticus

ARNeal

PinkWoods

Elmo

Carrie

Barb

Oops, I missed Chris

The Rules

There are none. Read the prompts, get inspired, write something. No word count minimum or maximum. You don’t have to include the exact prompt in your piece, and you can interpret the prompt(s) any way you like.

OR

No really; I need rules!

Okay; write 200-500 words on the prompt of your choice. You may either use the prompt as the title of your piece or work it into the body of your piece. You must complete it before 6 pm CST on the Monday following this post.

The Prompts:

LOOK AT ME NOW

WE NEED TO TALK

TIME EXCHANGE

SLEEP JUICE

MUSICAL EQUATION

Want to share your Inspiration Monday piece? Post it on your blog and link back to today’s post (here’s a video on how to do it); I’ll include a link to your piece in the next Inspiration Monday post. No blog? Email your piece to me at bekindrewrite (at) yahoo (dot) com. (I do reserve the right to NOT link to a piece as stated in my Link Discretion Policy.)

Plus, get the InMon badge for your site here.

Happy writing!

* MC = Mature Content.

Opinions expressed in other writers’ InMon pieces are not necessarily my own.

Inspiration Monday: What’s He Building in There?

Saw Oblivion last night and found it better than I expected. That’s the second time this month! Love it when that happens. Also, just wrapped up a four-day weekend full of writing and fireworks!

Can this get any better? Oh yes:

DJMatticus

ARNeal

Chris and another

Kate

LoveTheBadGuy

Jody

TheWriteProject

Carrie

The Rules

There are none. Read the prompts, get inspired, write something. No word count minimum or maximum. You don’t have to include the exact prompt in your piece, and you can interpret the prompt(s) any way you like.

OR

No really; I need rules!

Okay; write 200-500 words on the prompt of your choice. You may either use the prompt as the title of your piece or work it into the body of your piece. You must complete it before 6 pm CST on the Monday following this post.

The Prompts:

WHAT’S HE BUILDING IN THERE?**

MECHANICAL OASIS

ORANGE BLOOD

PHANTOM PAIN

PAPER LIES

Want to share your Inspiration Monday piece? Post it on your blog and link back to today’s post (here’s a video on how to do it); I’ll include a link to your piece in the next Inspiration Monday post. No blog? Email your piece to me at bekindrewrite (at) yahoo (dot) com. (I do reserve the right to NOT link to a piece as stated in my Link Discretion Policy.)

Plus, get the InMon badge for your site here.

Happy writing!

* MC = Mature Content.

Opinions expressed in other writers’ InMon pieces are not necessarily my own.

** Inspired by this thing that came on the radio the other day. Apparently it’s been around since 1999.

Inspiration Monday: Angel Hair

I forgot to mention: the second in my series of guest posts over in Raina’s world is up; Writers: What Will You Do with Your Power? And ooo, Raina added in a Neil Gaiman speech (he is SUCH a pleasure to listen to). So check that out.

And don’t forget to read this week’s InMonstories:

DJMatticus

ARNeal

Craig

Spider42

Raina

Barb

The Rules

There are none. Read the prompts, get inspired, write something. No word count minimum or maximum. You don’t have to include the exact prompt in your piece, and you can interpret the prompt(s) any way you like.

OR

No really; I need rules!

Okay; write 200-500 words on the prompt of your choice. You may either use the prompt as the title of your piece or work it into the body of your piece. You must complete it before 6 pm CST on the Monday following this post.

The Prompts:

ANGEL HAIR

WHAT HAPPENED

ONE CLICK AWAY

SMALL RED SPOTS

MAKE AN ENEMY

 

Want to share your Inspiration Monday piece? Post it on your blog and link back to today’s post (here’s a video on how to do it); I’ll include a link to your piece in the next Inspiration Monday post. No blog? Email your piece to me at bekindrewrite (at) yahoo (dot) com. (I do reserve the right to NOT link to a piece as stated in my Link Discretion Policy.)

Plus, get the InMon badge for your site here.

Happy writing!

* MC = Mature Content.

Opinions expressed in other writers’ InMon pieces are not necessarily my own.